2024 Rock & Roll HOF screechfest

Good stuff. And I’m obviously in some kind of minority in terms of how the term “not very good” is interpreted. It seems like the majority equate that with “sucks.” To me “not very good” means plain old good. Very good would be a step up from not very good, not the opposite end of the spectrum.

 

Rainmakers in Kansas City, too, @X-Hack.

 

Not before this one -- the perfect 007 opening credits theme and an underrated cut from an underrated album by someone who's already in the RRHOF. Honestly, if not for all the negative hype surrounding Axl's insanity, the fact that it was Axl and a bunch of session/touring musicians like Buckethead and Bumblefoot instead of the real GNR lineup and how many years it took to make it, Chinese Democracy would be a classic. Really, really good album.

 

That's kind of unfair to Foreigner. While they weren't hometown buddies who formed in someone's garage as teenagers playing Battle of the Bands in HS auditoriums before touring tiny venues in a station wagon and hawking their tapes after their shows for years and all that, they also weren't a prefab concept put together by a record label and promoters either. As quick as their success may have been, they were a real band formed on their own, even if they were already experienced professional musicians. They had to shop for a major label contract on the strength of their demos. And they got signed because their stuff was good enough that the execs thought it would sell. They also wrote their own songs as far as I'm aware and were able to sustain quality songwriting over multiple albums (it gets a lot tougher after a debut album that's often the product of years of honing your act before you get signed and then suddenly have to write and deliver a second album in a year).

The Runaways -- while Joan Jett and Lita Ford grew into talents on their own -- were a promoter's creation. And I've listened to them and don't get the hype other than the novelty of a girl band that played their own instruments. KISS was the creation of two individuals -- Simmons and Stanley -- who were businessmen first and artists somewhere down the list. And they never took themselves too seriously, which I admire a lot.

 

Simmons was a businessman. Stanley thought -- and still thinks -- he was among the greatest rock performers ever (he's not bad, but he's not that good, either). And almost nobody has ever taken himself more seriously than Paul Stanley takes himself.

 

I haven't listened to the whole thing in a while but it is a much, much better album than people think it is.

 

Say what you will about latter-era Kiss, which is less a band and more a merchandising outfit led by two extremely cynical businessmen, but in the early years Kiss hustled their asses off. They would play anywhere and everywhere, and that's part of the reason they got so big.

Also, Ace's solo album -- of the four all four members released at the same time -- is a genuinely good record. Holds up extremely well.

 

Ace's solo album is the best Kiss album the band never made. And you're right, they played areas other bands didn't go to which gave them a huge, loyal fan base in parts of the US other acts bypassed.

 

They were nothing if not prolific. Counting the solo records, they released 17 albums from '74-85. By the end of that period, they were as hair metal as it got. They knew how to stay in the spotlight, and did that for basically another 40 years.

 

Ace solo album is good. "Rip It Out" is a cool song.

Bizarrely, for a band that put out a ton of albums, they really weren't an album-oriented band, per se. A lot of good individual songs.

They're better than what their reputation suggests ... maybe even pioneers of sorts as a pop-oriented hard rock band. No band leaned into that as early as they did. They weren't critical punching bags either. Robert Christgau, probably as "hoity-toity" as it gets among famous critics, praised several of their albums.

At least they were better than their reputation suggests until they fully gave-in to their commercial impulses with their embarrassing 80s stuff. KISS has done more to wreck their legacy than anyone has.

 

The best and easiest comparison would be Lou Reed. He started out writing songs for Brill or some other songwriting company. Then started an artsy band and all the other shit that followed.

 

DMB should get in based three decades of being one of the top touring acts in the nation. They also put out good music.

Of course, that wasn't enough to get Jimmy Buffett into the HoF sooooo ...